The Past and Present Collides
by J.A. Lupin
Summary: On Halloween night, Mandy Brocklehurst finds Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party. There she meets Patrick, the ghost of a Ravenclaw student who died long ago. They become fast friends, but then the cause of his death comes back with a vengeance...
1. The Deathday Party

            Moonlight streamed through the soaring windows of the hall. The faint buzz of laughter and conversations lingered in the darkness, but Mandy Brocklehurst was far from that now. Her cheeks were still red, her eyes still ablaze, and her throat still sore from yelling, but she was alone now, and that was all that mattered. For a brief moment, she wondered if anyone would come looking for her. After all, everyone had seen her fight with Adrian Pucey, her Slytherin boyfriend, in the Great Hall. But no, they probably just assumed that she'd go up to the Common Room and fall asleep. 

            Instead she was wandering through the halls of Hogwarts on Halloween night, which was, in hindsight, not the smartest thing to do. But at the spur of the moment, it was the smartest thing in the world that she could think of. The drafty staircases cooled her burning cheeks, and watching the portraits of famous witches and wizards sleep peacefully in their frames was somehow reassuring. It was as if Peeves didn't exist.

            Although she had no way of knowing currently, Peeves wasn't going to be a bother to Mandy tonight. For Sir Nicholas de Mimsey-Porpington, known affectionately as Nearly Headless Nick, was holding a deathday party just down the hall, and Peeves was attending. He was certainly having a good time flinging rotten food at Moaning Myrtle, but Mandy was safe from his mischief for now.

            Mandy was a sixth year Ravenclaw, with short brown hair and big brown eyes. She was short, and rather thin, except the seemed to think that her backside didn't exactly fit her frame, so she always wore tight shirts and baggy pants. She was pretty, although a little plain. She liked earthy colors, and tended to blend into the crowd sometimes. Her passion for dark clothes served her well in the darkness of the corridors.

            As she crept painstakingly down the hall, being careful to avoid disappearing steps or trapdoors, the strangest sound reached her ears. It sounded like skeletons screaming, or thousands of cats being stepped on at once. It was very faint, but as she picked up the pace, it became louder and even more horrible. 

When the music reached its peak in decibels, she stopped dead and turned to look around. Just to her right, a narrow, slanting passageway, lit by black candles and probably leading to the dungeons, beckoned to her. Considering that awful, unearthly sound and a freezing draft was coming from it, it was probably best to move on, but Mandy did nothing of the sort. Instead, she drew her robes more tightly around her and began her descent down the tunnel. 

There were black tapered candles everywhere, and the flames burned blue instead of gold, casting horrible shadows and making Mandy's overactive imagination wonder if she'd just stepped into the underworld. Suddenly she heard sad voices over the droning music (if you had the nerve to call it that) and began to hurry. When she finally reached the huge dungeon door, she inched it open and snuck inside, hoping to go unnoticed, and that her interest in this wouldn't bring about her falling from the mortal plane.

What she saw took her breath away. Hundreds of silvery, almost transparent ghosts drifted around, carrying on mournful conversation and dancing slowly to the dreadful music, which was being played by a ghostly orchestra. The room was filled with the black candles, and black streamers had been draped across the ceiling. In fact, almost everything in the room was black, save the ghosts themselves, the stone walls, and the blue flames of the candles.  Above the doorway was a sign, written in red letters that shone like blood, reading:

SIR NICHOLAS DE MIMSY-PORPINGTON   
DIED 31ST OCTOBER, 1492

Mandy raised an eyebrow. She knew what this was, she had read about them hundreds of times before. A deathday party. Part of her was fascinated, because being a Ravenclaw, she was in awe of the learning opportunity before her, but part of her was terrified. Her nose was beginning to run from the freezing air, and some of the ghosts seemed to have died in more gruesome ways than she could have ever imagined. She backed up slowly, hoping to just watch from a safe corner, but accidentally ended up steeping through a ghost.

She wished immediately that she hadn't, because it was like being soaked in icy rain, and she was freezing already from the awful drafts of the dungeon. The ghost swiveled around to face her, and she, terrified, pressed herself against the wall.

"I'm terribly sorry, I didn't see you…I didn't mean to come here, it was all a mistake, I'll just be going now," she breathed, looking at the floor.

"It's quite alright, don't worry about it…but how on earth did you get here?" came the reply.

Mandy looked up, her brown hair falling into her eyes. She brushed it away and then found herself almost smiling at the ghost before her.

He couldn't have been a day older than seventeen when he died, and there were no visible injuries anywhere on his body. He was very handsome for a ghost, with a straight nose, a kind smile, and floppy hair, and he still wore his Hogwarts uniform – meaning he had probably died while still a student. He was tall, but not imposing, and he looked down at her with genuine curiosity in his eyes.

"I, er, well, I sort of," she mumbled, suddenly feeling stupid. It was idiotic of her to have come down here. "I got in a fight with someone at the feast, so I left the Great Hall and sort of wandered around, and I heard the, um, music" - she shot a glance at the orchestra – "and kind of came down to see what was going on. I'm sorry, I was wrong to come here, I'll just be going." She blushed and turned to walk away.

"No, no, stay," he said, reaching out a cold hand to touch her shoulder. She winced at the contact, and he drew away. "This party could use some life." 

That made her laugh, and he, in turned, smiled, making them the only beings in the room besides Peeves to be doing so. Even Nick was sitting in a corner, still sulking over being declined to join the Headless Hunt, and all the other guests were either reminiscing over their own deaths (which was naturally not a cheery topic) or complaining about how all anyone ever did at these things was talk about how they died. Peeves, however, was throwing pieces of moldy salmon at Moaning Myrtle and gleefully insulting her as she ran around the room, dodging chunks of putrid fish. 

"I'm Patrick, Patrick Lawrence," the ghost in front of Mandy said. He extended a hand, but then quickly jerked it away, remembering how she had reacted to his touch before.

"Mandy Brocklehurst," she said gloomily.

"Don't you like your name? I think it's rather interesting, actually."

"Just be glad it isn't yours," she replied. 

He grinned and moved to stand beside her. "So this is the first deathday party you've been to, I presume?"

Mandy nodded and adjusted her robes. She had the feeling that if she stayed too long, she'd become a human icicle. Or maybe a ghost. She wished that somehow she'd known, so she could have brought her cloak. And then she realized that Patrick was talking to her. She looked up at him, surprised.

"Oh, yes, yes…being alive, naturally, I've never been invited to one." He grinned and she managed a small smile, then continued. "But I've read all about them. They've always sounded so terribly interesting…I wish I could interview every single ghost in this room. Can you imagine the book that would make, if I learned the story of every ghost here?" She looked up and him and he grinned again. 

"You're a Ravenclaw, aren't you?" he asked, brushing a wisp of hair off his forehead. Mandy noticed that, oddly, he seemed to be more solid than the other ghosts. Maybe because he had died much later?

She nodded and showed him the House badge sewn onto her robes. "And proud of it," she added. He nodded.

"I was one myself." Then he pointed to the Grey Lady, a pretty female ghost with sad eyes in a long, flowing dress. "I suppose you know the Grey Lady, then?"

Mandy nodded. "Yes, she's our house ghost. I've never really talked to her, though. She's rather quiet, but she does help us with our schoolwork sometimes." 

The air seemed to suddenly get colder, and Mandy's teeth began to chatter. Her toes were going numb, and the hair on her arms was standing up straight. If she didn't leave soon, she would probably catch pneumonia. It was probably from attending this event and not moving around, then stepping into ghosts when she did, and the drafts that seemed to cut through her robes.That wouldn't bother her too much, because with any luck she could be on sick leave for awhile, or maybe she could pass it on to Adrian, but then she'd have to explain exactly how she caught it, since the areas the students were allowed to visit were always warm, and that would be a disaster. So she decided to try to figure out a way to leave.

Luckily, Patrick noticed her discomfort. "Are you cold?" He asked, and when she nodded in reply, he frowned and said, "I'm sorry I didn't notice earlier. You see, it's been so long since…" He trailed off, shook his head, and started to make his way toward the exit. Moaning Myrtle ran right through him, wailing and trying to disentangle maggots from her hair. Peeves followed her, zooming through the air with his half-empty salmon tray, and gave Patrick a quick, grinning salute.

Mandy stifled her laughter and followed Patrick, being careful to avoid Peeves' eyes. Patrick led her into the hallway, and she began to rub her hands together, try to restore feeling to her numb fingers. They made their way to the main hallway, and Mandy was relieved to start feeling warmth in her body again. She cast a glance at Patrick, who was, in turn, watching her. His eyes looked somehow blue in the moonlight…

"Are you tired?" he asked, and Mandy shook her head.

"No. I don't want to go back, anyway." She hung her head. "I made a fool of myself in the Great Hall. I wouldn't be surprised if they were still laughing it up."

"What happened?"

Mandy shrugged and began to walk. "It was stupid, really. I shouldn't have gotten so upset. But my boyfriend, Adrian, started saying things about my family that he shouldn't have said…I'm a half-blood, you see, and he's a Slytherin, so he sort of sees me as…less than him. Maybe he didn't mean it, what he said, because he was with his friends, but maybe he did. It sounded like he did. I don't think he really cares about me. Sometimes I wonder why he even bothers…Anyway, halfway through the feast, he started joking around and calling me 'his Mudblood', so I got mad and yelled at him, the wanker."

She looked at Patrick and saw that he looked like he was about to laugh, probably because of her last two words. She grinned. "I'm sorry." Patrick laughed. "He just makes me so mad sometimes."

Footsteps down the hall made Mandy spin around. Professor Sinistra was storming down the hall. She looked flustered, angry, and relieved all at once. 

"Mandy Brocklehurst!" Her voice echoed down the hallway, and Mandy flinched. "What on earth are you doing?" When Sinistra was within speaking distance, Mandy began to talk.

"Well, Professor, I was really upset after my fight with Adrian in the Great Hall, so I decided to take a walk…I got lost, and I ended up at Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party, and I met, um, Patrick, and he was just walking me back to the Common Room…" Mandy nervously ran a hand through her hair and looked up hopefully at the professor, who sighed.

"You know very well that you shouldn't be wandering the halls at night, Mandy. Five points will be taken from Ravenclaw. Now come with me." She grabbed Mandy's wrist and turned to the ghost with a tight-lipped smile. "Thank you, Patrick." He nodded deeply, and then Sinistra proceeded to half-drag Mandy down the hall towards the common room.

Mandy waved and forced a smile as Patrick disappeared around the corner. 


	2. Terry and Padma

            It was not until Sinistra and Mandy arrived at the entrance to the Ravenclaw Common Room that the Professor spoke again. Mandy had been expecting the speech, because throughout her days at Hogwarts, Sinistra had been something of a mentor to her. Part of this was because Mandy excelled in Sinistra's class, Astronomy, and since she had confessed that her dream was to be an astronomer, the Professor had taken it upon herself to guide her to that goal. As Sinistra spoke, she grabbed Mandy's shoulders and looked her in the eye.

            "Listen to me, Mandy. I saw what happened in the Great Hall tonight. I let you off with only a deduction of five points because I know how upset you must be. But I trust that it will _not _happen again, even if it means that you will stop seeing Adrian." She shook Mandy's shoulders, and Mandy looked back up at her. "I know that you're fond of him, and maybe he feels the same about you, but I think it would be best if you stopped seeing him." She paused as if she was going to say more but then thought better of it (usually Sinistra was an off-hands type of professor when it came to relationships and giving advice about them, part of this was because of a rumor that had spawned a long time ago about Sinistra and not having a love-life). "Now get some rest. You've had a long night."

            Mandy nodded, silently, and then Sinistra walked away. Mandy turned around to face the entrance to the common room. A portrait of a young professor, sitting at his desk surrounded by globes, maps, books and parchments, hung over the entranceway. The man in the painting looked up and smiled.

            "Hello, Mandy. Password?"

            She smiled wearily at the painting. "_Calliope_."

            The picture swung away, and she walked through the tall doorway behind it. The lights of the common room were welcoming after the endless darkness of the halls, as was the sight of leaping flames in the fireplace. Mandy sighed as she crossed the room and collapsed into a high-backed blue velvet armchair close to the fire. She took off her shoes and lifted her feet close to the flames, trying to restore feeling to her toes. 

            The Ravenclaw Common Room was grand and beautiful, with gleaming desks of mahogany and armchairs like Mandy's scattered across the room. A large bookshelf was set up against the wall opposite of Mandy, and the other wall, which was opposite the portrait hole, displayed a tapestry with the Ravenclaw emblem embroidered onto it. The ceiling was high, and a mural of Rowena Ravenclaw standing in the Forbidden Forest, with an eagle perched on her arm was painted on it. The floor was less awe-inspiring, simply adorned with lush blue carpet. The spiral staircases leading up to the dorms were positioned on each side of the Ravenclaw tapestry. 

            None of this mattered to Mandy, as she had seen this everyday of her entire past at Hogwarts. All she cared about was returning feeling back into her numb body. As she rubbed her fingers zealously, her best friends, Terry Boot and Padma Patil, came running over. 

            Terry was tall and broad-shouldered, with short, sandy hair and glasses. Padma was beautiful like her sister, Parvati, and she had plaited silver ribbons into her long black braid.

            "Where've you been, Mandy? The Slytherins said you went to go drown yourself in the lake, and when I told them that was a load of rubbish, Malfoy tried to hex me. You should've seen it. He accidentally hit Padma's food and her pie sprouted tentacles," Terry explained, in his deep, husky voice.

            Mandy laughed and shook her head. "If I was going to drown anyone, it would have been Adrian. But I just went for a bit of a walk, and sort of ended up at Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party." 

            Padma's eyes widened partly because of Mandy roaming around the corridors at night - alone! – and partly because not many living people got the opportunity to see a deathday party, and she sat down in the chair next to Mandy's. Terry followed suit. "Tell us about it, Mandy," Padma ordered.

            So Mandy breathlessly described the party, from the candles to the orchestra to the cold, and then stopped when she got to the part about walking alone with Patrick.

            "Patrick and I were walking along, probably headed here, and it was so strange…His eyes looked blue, and he seemed more solid than the other ghosts. Obviously he wasn't _that_ solid, seeing as how I walked right through him, but even then, it was as if he had more substance to him. D'you think it's just because he hasn't been dead all that long?" 

             Terry frowned. "I've never heard anything about ghosts fading as they age, but it sounds plausible. Does it really matter?"

            "No, no, it doesn't." She started to say something else, but was cut off by a yawn. A quick glance at the clock told her it was near ten, and though that was rather early, Mandy stood up. "I think I'm going to try to get some sleep."

            "You'll miss the party, and that's supposed to be bad luck," Padma warned. "Besides, you didn't get to eat at the Feast, so unless you ate some moldy peanuts at the deathday party, you'd better stay and grab something to eat before you go to bed."

            Mandy shook her head. "I'm alright. The maggot-stuffed salmon at the party must have taken my appetite away." She smiled and started to walk up the stairs.

            "You really should have tried it, Mandy. I've heard it's a rare delicacy in France!" Terry called after her. She gave a chuckle as she turned around and waved.

            "Goodnight."

            The dorms were considerably cooler, and as Mandy changed into her pajamas, she found herself shivering again. Just after she'd thrown herself into bed and drawn the covers up to her chin, a tapping noise at her window jerked her away from the newfound warmth. She sat up and saw Hunter, her brown barn owl, sitting on her windowsill with a note tied to its foot. Mandy sighed and heaved the window open, gritting her teeth as the freezing October air swept in. 

            She untied the letter and looked at Hunter with sad eyes.

            "I don't have anything for you. You'll have to go to the owlery for some food. Sorry."

            Hunter gave her a resentful look and took flight, making sure to smack Mandy in the face with his wing. Ignoring the owl's hostility, Mandy sat down and unrolled her letter. It wasn't from whom she expected.

                        _Mandy—_

_It was very nice to meet you tonight at the party. I am sorry if I got you into any trouble. It's been awhile since I was a student, and my brain is a bit rusty when it comes to Hogwarts' rules. If you are interested, I would like to see you again. Would you meet me in the owlery tomorrow night at 7? You don't need to owl me back; I'll just wait._

_            Patrick_

Mandy smiled and slid the note onto her nightstand. Then she picked up her schedule, and on the square reserved for November 1st, she scribbled, "Seven o'clock: meet Patrick at the owlery." Then she set the schedule and pen back down, closed the window, and pulled the sheets over her head. She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. 

* * *

Daylight was streaming through the gap between the curtains and the window. Mandy rolled over and grunted. Morning was not her favorite time of day. 

"Get up, Mandy. It's almost noon."

Padma's voice was unwelcome to Mandy's ears. Mandy turned over again and pulled the covers up over her head. Padma rolled her eyes and grabbed her friend's shoulders, trying to shake her awake.

"Geroff me, Padma. I said get off!" Mandy flailed her arms, trying to smack Padma, and only succeeded in flinging the sheets off herself. Padma laughed and walked over to the mirror and began to braid her hair. Mandy got up, grumbling, and blindly pulled on her jeans and a sweater. As she fought with the hairbrush, she spoke to Padma.

"How was the Halloween party? Did I miss much?"

Padma finished her braid and began to spray perfume on herself. "Not really. Cho managed to get her hands on some butterbeer, and some of the first years drank so much they passed out. But other than that, it wasn't more exciting than any other year."

Mandy nodded. "Is it really almost noon? Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

Padma shrugged and moved on to her make-up. "I thought you'd want to sleep in late, since we only have one class toda—OW! Ow, ow," she whimpered. "I stabbed myself in the eye with the mascara brush. It hurts, oh, it hurts…"

"Now you see why I don't bother with make-up," Mandy grumbled. "And what do you mean? We only have one class today? I thought today was supposed to be normal."

Padma gritted her teeth and pointed her wand at her eye, then muttered a simple spell to dull the pain and reduce the redness. "Thanks for caring about my pain. Professor Flitwick came up last night and told us that 'In light of recent events, all morning classes for November 1st are cancelled.'" 

"'In light of recent events'? What recent events?" 

"Honestly, Mandy, you are so dim. How you got into Ravenclaw is beyond me," she paused and shook her head in disapproval. "Last night, someone—or something, I think—" she corrected, "broke into Trelawney's and Snape's classrooms and completely destroyed them. Bottles broken, chairs ripped in half, desks reduced to splinters, posters torn into pieces, papers strewn everywhere…the whole deal. All the teachers are pitching in to help magically repair them. We still have our afternoon class, though, because all the teachers are taking the afternoon off of cleaning up so they can teach and no one has Divination or Potions in the afternoon on Fridays."

Mandy blinked. Padma didn't seem the least bit concerned about the fact that an escaped convict (the Sirius Black incident from third year was still fresh in Mandy's mind), some ancient monster (who could forget the basilisk?) or even You-Know-Who himself (though that was a bit of a stretch, she thought, but still possible) could be loose in the castle. In fact, her friend seemed more concerned with the lipstick on her teeth than the fate of the world. Mandy rolled her eyes and walked out of the room.

"Bloody hell, Mandy, where are you going? Help me get this lipstick off my teeth. It tastes disgusting."

"I want to talk to Professor Sinistra. I'll be back later." She walked down the stairs, taking them two at a time, and headed for the portrait hole.

Terry was sitting at a desk in the common room, working on homework. As Mandy passed, he called out to her.

"Hey, Mandy, I need to talk to you. Could you spare a minute?"

"Actually, I was just looking for Professor Sinistra now. Want to come with me? We could talk on the way," she replied.

He nodded and gathered his stuff, shoved it into his bag, and began to walk with her towards the Astronomy Tower. They were silent for a good five minutes, and then Terry turned and began to talk again.

"Did you hear about what happened to Trelawney and Snape?"

"Yeah, Padma told me about it. She didn't even sound worried. Are you?"

He nodded fervently. "Anything that can cause that much damage and avoid being caught isn't human. I'm surprised the teachers haven't taken more precautions, but maybe they know what's happening and how to deal with it. I sure hope they do…" He paused for a second. "But you know, I was thinking—"

"On a morning when the classes have been cancelled, Terry? How could you?" Mandy grinned.

"Well, I didn't mean to. But anyway, I was thinking, why Snape and Trelawney? I mean, his classroom is in the dungeon, and hers is in the North Tower. So wouldn't you think that whoever did this would chose classrooms on the same floor to avoid the risks of being caught? I mean, you'd have to travel across the entire castle to get from the North Tower to the dungeons, and by the time someone had found the first crime scene, the whole castle would be on alert and there wouldn't be much of a chance of getting to the second crime scene or getting out of the castle. So my theory is that whatever did this can fly or become invisible, or there's more than one. Maybe both. 

"But then I thought, if whatever it is isn't human, why would it seek out those two teachers in particular? Why not just trash everything in view? Or did they enter those two rooms first, and then never make it to the halls? It's all so confusing."

Mandy raised an eyebrow. "You've really thought about this, haven't you?"

"Well, it's important, isn't it? I mean, you never know who could be behind this."

"You're not going to try anything, are you?" Mandy asked, looking apprehensive.

Terry shook his head. "You know me. I'm a thinker, not a doer." Then he grinned. "Why, are you worried about me?"

Mandy rolled her eyes and smiled. "You know I am. If you don't stop over-analyzing everything, your brain's going to swell up and eventually explode from all the extra effort."

Terry laughed swung his arm around Mandy's shoulder. They walked in silence again until they reached the Astronomy Tower. Professor Sinistra's office was at the base of the tower. Mandy walked up to it and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came the reply.

            Mandy pushed open the door and smiled tentatively at Sinistra. The Professor's desk was covered in papers, quills, and ink, and plates of sandwiches and a jug of pumpkin juice. 

            "Did we catch you at a bad time?" Terry asked. 

            "No, no, I'm just on my lunch break from helping with the classrooms…You've heard all about that, I assume?"

            The two students both nodded. 

            "Actually…I came to ask you about that. Well, not about _that_, exactly…Anyway. Last night Patrick sent me an owl asking me to meet him tonight in the owlery. D'you think it's safe if I go? I'd like to see him again, but with all this going on, I don't want to get into any trouble," Mandy explained.

            Terry shifted uncomfortably behind her, as if he wanted to protest, but didn't.

            "Well, Mandy…when did he say he wanted to meet?"

            "Seven P.M."

Professor Sinistra sighed. "Well, I'd say that if you were back at your common room by nine, it would be alright. Just go straight there and straight back." She paused, and Mandy nodded and turned to walk out the door with Terry in tow. "And Mandy…" Mandy looked over her shoulder. "Don't get too involved with him. Remember: He's a ghost."

Mandy nodded, but the words might as well have fallen on deaf ears. 


	3. The Storm

            Mandy and Terry walked out of the room and begin to head towards the Great Hall. Terry was watching Mandy out of the corner of his eye, as if he wanted to ask her something but couldn't quite find the words to do so. Then, as they passed the portrait of a plump, sleeping wizard, he spoke.

            "Why did you arrange to meet Patrick again?" Terry asked, in a disapproving tone of voice. 

            "I didn't. He owled me, and it would be rude if I just stood him up," she replied before continuing in a softer voice. "Besides, he was nice. And handsome…" she blushed and trailed off, looking away.

            Terry stopped walking, disbelief etched all over his face. "Whoa, wait. You fancy a _ghost_? He's _dead_, Mandy."

            "I do not fancy him. I'm not that stupid. But wouldn't it be interesting to have a ghost for a friend?" She said, trying to cover up her mistake by admitting to her friend that she found Patrick attractive.

            He nodded reluctantly, and then began walking again. Now it was Mandy's turn to watch Terry. He was deep in thought, which wasn't a surprise, considering his habit of overanalyzing everything. His brow was furrowed, his mouth set in a frown, and his eyes set on something only he could see. Yep, he was in his own little world again, and Mandy decided to take advantage of it. She waved a few fingers in front of his eyes, then both hands, and when she got no response, she tried a more dramatic distraction. 

            "Terry, your hair is on fire!" she shrieked, and then propelled herself into him, knocking him over. Her tactic worked, and he yelled out in surprise, and then glowered at his friend as she lay on top of him, shaking with silent laughter. Her cheeks were flushed with mirth, but his began to redden for an entirely different reason. He hated being interrupted when he was thinking, especially by one of Mandy's frequent crazy moments.

            "What was that for?" he growled.

            "You looked so lost in thought…so serious…I couldn't resist," she wheezed.

            "It's not funny, Mandy. You could've knocked me into the wall and killed me. And what if a professor had heard, eh? I'm sure no one's in the mood to put up with your antics today, me included," Terry snapped in a tone that made it clear that he was a little bit more than annoyed at her.

            He shot her a condescending look. Her cheeks were still pink, but now her mouth was set in a frown, and her brown eyes still shone, but now they were serious. Terry pushed her off him and stood up, smoothing out his robes. Mandy looked up at him.

            "Lighten up, Terry. This isn't the apocalypse," she said.

            He held out a hand, and when she took it, he pulled her to her feet. She continued to gaze defiantly into his eyes. He cracked a smile, his first that morning, and she returned it. 

            "I know, I know. Just keep the goofing off to a minimum, all right? Everyone's bound to be a bit tense, and you don't want to lose any more points for us." He waited for her to nod, and then he swung his arm around her narrow shoulders like he always did when they walked together. 

            They continued on their way to lunch, silent once again. Their relationship was a strange one: unless they needed to talk about homework or a recent crisis, they were quiet around each other. Mandy seemed to feel protected by him, and he seemed to take comfort in her presence. 

            When they reached the Great Hall, the first thing Mandy noticed was how subdued it seemed. Sure, occasional bouts of laughter still rang out, but almost everyone was talking in hushed voices or not talking at all, simply eating. Terry leaned back, looking around Mandy, and then sighed. 

            "Guess who's coming over," he said gloomily.

            "Not Adrian, please," she moaned, and when her suspicions were confirmed, she moved behind Terry. "Don't let him see me. I don't want to talk to him."

            "Too late," Terry whispered, just as Adrian reached them.

            Adrian was even taller than Terry, standing at about six foot two, with black hair cut short in the back and longer in the front so it fell into his brown eyes, and a tan and freckles from endless hours of practicing Quidditch. He had a bright smile and even, white teeth, but it was impossible to tell at the moment, because he was scowling. 

            "Move," he hissed at Terry, and Terry stepped out of the way, revealing Mandy. 

            She was so short that she had to tilt her head up absurdly to look into Adrian's eyes, but she did it anyway, and raised an eyebrow in the process. 

            "What do you want, Pucey?" 

            He dropped her gaze and his scowl and stared at the floor.

            "I just wanted to, um, you know, uh…"

            "Apologize?"

            "Yeah, that's it. I came to apologize." He looked at her again. "I'm really sorry for the things I said last night, and I was worried sick about you when you left like that. You have to understand, I'm under a lot of pressure right now. The team is really working hard lately and we still aren't good enough . . .and I keep saying stupid things I don't mean. So do you forgive me?"

            She sighed and looked down, partially disappointed that he was letting Quidditch get the better of him - again. "Yeah, I forgive you. But don't let it happen again!"

            He grinned and hugged her. "I won't, I swear." Then he put an arm around her waist and began to walk with her towards the tables. "Eat lunch with me." 

            They walked over to the Slytherin table and sat down at the end, leaving Terry standing by the entrance and watching Adrian with a look of utter loathing on his face. He was just about to go over and drag Mandy to the Ravenclaw table when Padma walked up behind him and punched him on the shoulder.

            "Come on, let's go eat. I'm positively famished," she said breathily, and pretended to swoon. He cast her a dark look and she crossed her eyes at him, making him laugh. Then they walked over to the table and sat down.

            Meanwhile, Mandy was filling her boyfriend in on the deathday party. Just as she had when she was telling the story to Padma and Terry, she stopped when she got to the part about walking with Patrick, but for a different reason this time. Things were already shaky with Adrian, and she didn't want to make them worse by mentioning the charming, handsome ghost she was meeting with in a few hours. 

            "I stayed for awhile, but I started to freeze, so I left and started to head towards the Common Room. I guess Sinistra had been looking for me, because she found me a few minutes later. Thankfully, she only took five points off. It was worth it, just to see a real deathday party," she lied. 

            "I bet," he responded, sounding completely sincere. Adrian had a thing for ghosts. "Did you talk to anyone?"

            "No," she replied, perhaps too quickly, because he looked like he didn't believe her. "I just stayed in the shadows and watched. No one looked particularly friendly, and I didn't want Peeves to see me and then run off to tell Filch." 

            Adrian nodded and they continued talking.

            "What do you think about the classrooms?" Adrian said, through a bite of steak and kidney pie. "The attacks on them, I mean."

            "I don't know…I haven't given them as much thought as everyone else, mostly because I was asleep when they were announced. But Terry," Adrian flinched at the mention of the person he viewed as the only problem between himself and Mandy, "has this theory that two people are attacking, and they can either fly or become invisible. I guess that's my theory, too. What do _you_ think?"

            He shrugged and took a swig of pumpkin juice. Then he leaned in and lowered his voice so only Mandy could hear him.

            "I would say the Death Eaters, but that just doesn't make sense…Mostly because Snape's the head of Slytherin and they wouldn't attack him. He used to be a Death Eater too, I think…but then, maybe it does make sense, because they might be getting revenge on him for leaving. I don't know. There's just not enough evidence to go on. But I agree that there's more than one."

            She nodded and they continued to talk as they always did. 

* * *

            Seven o'clock came almost faster than Mandy wanted. Just as the small hand on Mandy's wristwatch slid onto the "VII," she pushed open the owlery door and was met by the screeching of hundreds of owls. Patrick stood in the far corner, almost obscured by dark shadows, running his fingers through the feathers of a snowy owl. It was a truly ethereal sight, from the blinding white of the owl to Patrick's grayish glow to the final rays of dying red sunlight that slanted across the room. Mandy stood motionless for a few moments, wishing she had a camera to capture the strange beauty before her. But ghosts didn't show up in photographs, did they?

            Patrick turned his head to look at her and she was once again jarred by the fact that his eyes looked blue. He grinned and sort of floated over to her. 

            "Hello, Mandy. It's good to see you again."

            She smiled back. "It's nice to see you, too."

"You aren't going to get in any trouble for meeting me here, are you?" He asked, biting his lip. 

            "No, I spoke to Professor Sinistra this morning and she said that as long as I'm back at the Common Room by nine, it's alright."  

            He nodded. "Good. I don't want to get you in any more trouble than I already have."

            She waved her hand dismissively. "All I lost last night was five points off, and that was my fault, not yours. I shouldn't have been wandering by myself. But then again, I'm glad I did. After all, how many living people get to say they've been to a deathday party?"

            "Not many," he said, smiling. Then he looked up, and Mandy followed his gaze to the rafters, which held hundreds of owl cages. Snowy owls, barn owls, big owls, little owls…they all flapped their wings restlessly, and they were all beautiful. "Some place, isn't it?"

            "It's lovely," she agreed, "though not the first place I would have thought to meet." 

            "Well, it's inconspicuous. If I would have asked you to meet me in the Astronomy Tower, the teachers would have thought we were up to something," he joked, wagging an eyebrow at her. 

            She laughed. Everyone knew that the real purpose of the tower wasn't for looking at stars, but for Hogwarts couples to hide in the darkness and snog each other senseless. In fact, Mandy had been up there a few times with Adrian for some midnight snogging, but she wasn't about to tell Patrick that- the scolding from Padma and Terry was more then enough to remind her about the rules.

            "Oh! I wanted to ask you something," she said, suddenly remembering the owl he had sent her earlier. "How did you write that note to me? I thought you just passed through solid things."

            "Well, at will, or when caught off guard, we can pass through things, which is quite handy, because I haven't had to turn a doorknob or hunt for a key in a hundred years. But we can hold or touch solid things too. Hold up your hand," he instructed her. She looked puzzled, so he explained. "Let me show you." 

            She complied, and raised her arm so her hand was held level with her face, and her palm was facing outward. Patrick took his own hand and laid his palm against hers. It was the strangest thing she had ever felt. His palm was cold and dry, and she could feel the grooves in his skin and the roughness of his fingertips, but it wasn't like touching skin. It was like touching dry ice carved into the shape of a hand, only not as solid. Then he pressed a bit harder, and his fingers slid through her palm.

            She stood there in awe at the sight of four gray, ghostly fingers sticking out of the back of her hand. Her whole arm tingled from the touch, and sent shivers down her spine. Her heart raced, and her mouth went dry. Afraid of what she was feeling, she drew away and let her hand fall with a little gasp.

            "Fascinating, isn't it? It's one of the few perks of being a ghost. You can hold onto things, unless they're unnaturally heavy, but you can pass through them too."

            "Amazing," she agreed, her voice a breathy whisper, and her eyes dancing. "Show me again."

            He laughed and obeyed, loving the look on her face as he passed his fingers through her palm again. She smiled at him when he let his hand fall, and then walked to the window. The wind was picking up, thrashing the limbs of the trees about and chasing leaves across the ground. The sky was covered in a thick gray blanket of clouds, and suddenly the sky opened up rain poured down in steely sheets. 

            "Storm's starting," Mandy said. "I hope there's thunder."

            Patrick had moved up beside her and was resting his elbows on the windowsill. "Do you like thunder?"

            "I love thunder," she replied, feeling a smile come to play on her lips. She also leaned on the windowsill, crossing her arms and resting her chin on them. "When I was little, my father used to say that storms were the greatest magic of all. They can hurt or heal. They can bring flowers to life or they can rip them from the ground. Without storms, we wouldn't be alive, but with too many, we would drown. Of course, it was just a story to calm me down when I got scared of the lightning, but to this day I still love storms."

            She looked up at Patrick and smiled, and he returned the gesture, but his eyes were oddly sad. 

            "I never liked storms. To me, they always represented the fact that nature can never be controlled. Nature is one factor that we have no say in, and I didn't like that. One horrible storm could come in and rip my world apart, and there would be nothing I could do about it. I used to pray every time the thunder would roll in, but there's no use for religion anymore. It's not real."

            Mandy looked up at him, at his eyes fixed on the sky outside, at his hair framing his face, and at his hands clasped together. Indeed, his very being seemed to be proof that religion didn't exist – after all, if there was a God, why would he be a ghost? Wouldn't he go straight to heaven or purgatory, instead of being doomed to wander the earth like this for god knows how long? Mandy had never been religious, but her Muggle mother was a "woman of faith" who taught her children the basic principles of Catholicism. And in just two days of knowing Patrick, all those principles had been shattered for Mandy. She shuddered.

            Mandy looked away, and murmured, so softly that she wasn't sure Patrick would hear her, "I'm sorry you had to lose your faith."

            "I am too," he replied. "I am too."

            Silence took the place of conversation for a while as they watched the clouds rain themselves out, and then Patrick remembered Mandy's fight from the night before.

            "Did you talk to your boyfriend? The one you fought with?"

            "Oh! Yes, I did," she said, slightly surprised at the sound of his voice.

            "What happened?"

            "We made up, no surprise there. We always do. He said he's been under a lot of pressure lately, and he has, because he's a seventh year and he has to get good grades. Add to that the fact that he's a Quidditch player, and he's already studying for the N.E.W.T.s, which he has to ace if he wants to get the job he's been aiming for."

            "What job is that?"

            "He wants to be an Auror. I know, it's odd, because he's a Slytherin, but he's not evil like a lot of the people in that house are. He's in Slytherin because he's cunning and clever and he does whatever he has to to get what he wants. He's not cruel, but he can be ruthless sometimes."

            Patrick seemed to consider her words for a while. Then he asked, "What do you want to be?"

            "I'm not sure. I'm good at Astronomy, but I can't see myself staring at the sky for the rest of my life. I'll probably just marry Adrian like my mum wants me to and be a housewife."

            "But that's not what you want, is it?"

            She shrugged. "I love Adrian, so it wouldn't be so bad. Besides, I just can't see myself doing anything else. I've never been one of those who's destined for greatness."

            "That's not true," he argued. "You just haven't found what makes you tick yet."

            Mandy grinned at him. "Maybe." Then she looked down at her watch. "Blast! It's five past nine. I told Sinistra I'd be back at nine. I have to go. It was nice to see you again, Patrick."

            "Wait. Can I see you again? Would you meet me back here on Sunday, the same time?"

            She was halfway out the door, but she turned back and called, "I'll try!"

            He smiled and nodded. "Goodnight."

            But she was already gone.


	4. Attack

            Mandy ran down the steps and raced through the halls, desperate to reach the Common Room in time. If whatever had destroyed those classrooms was still lurking somewhere in the castle, she didn't want to be alone a second longer than she had to be. She reached the Common Room at 9:12 and gasped the password to the painting in the portrait hole. As it swung aside, she walked in and collapsed, panting, into the nearest armchair.

            As her heart stopped pounding and her breath became normal, she noticed the odd silence of the room. The wind still howled and shrieked outside, rain still beat down like footsteps on the roof, and the fire still roared and crackled, but the room was strangely devoid of any other sound. 

            She stood up, now beginning to shake, and walked up the stairs. Her heart was pounding again as she pushed open the door of her dormitory. It was empty. She moved on to the next one, and it was empty as well. All of them were. She didn't go to the boy's dorms, because something in her knew that they were empty, too. 

            Her mouth dry, she turned and ran back down, forcing herself to think, _Get to the Great Hall. They're in the Great Hall. Something happened, and they had to go down so the whole school could be together. Don't look left, don't look right, and _don't_ look back. Just run. _

            And she did. She ran out of the portrait hole, and then something strange occurred to her. Why hadn't Professor Aldwin, the man in the painting, told her that the Common Rooms had been emptied? She was tempted to turn around and ask him what had happened, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. _I'll find out soon enough_, she promised herself, and then began to run again.

            As she ran, she noticed that the torches lining the hallway threw her shadow across the walls and contorted it into strange, twisted shapes. The suits of armor seemed to have eyes that Mandy could feel burning into her back, and a wordless whisper seemed to come from the paintings. The frequent lightning that slashed the rain-soaked sky and the occasional thunder that made the ground shake didn't help Mandy's mounting paranoia, either. 

She cursed herself for visiting Patrick, and cursed herself again for staying even a moment too long. If anything, she should have left early to make sure she arrived at the Common Room by nine. But no, she had been so caught up in their conversation that she had been late, and even those five minutes could change everything.

When she finally arrived at the Common Room, she was too exhausted to sigh in relief. The students and some teachers were sitting at the tables or on the floor, listening attentively to Professor Dumbledore, who stood at the Head Table, giving a speech. Mandy leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath and find Terry, Padma, or Adrian in the crowd. Over her shallow, uneven breathing and the buzzing in her ears, she didn't catch a single word Dumbledore said. She only noticed when he had finished speaking and conjured hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.

_This is just like third year, when Black was loose in the castle. Maybe he's loose again? Maybe he and his group of Death Eaters destroyed the classrooms, _she thought, feeling a fresh wave of terror sweep over her. Then she noticed that Terry was running toward her. 

"Mandy! Mandy! I wanted to look for you, but they wouldn't let me leave. No one's allowed to leave the Great Hall, 'cept Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall. Are you all right? How did you know to come here?" He asked breathlessly, taking her hand and leading her over to the Ravenclaw table.

"I'm all right…what happened? Is Sirius Black loose again? What's going on?"

Terry shook his head. "If they know, they're not telling us. They just said that there's been another attack, and they want us all here so the teachers can watch us. Padma went to talk with one of the prefects about it. Sit down, you look awful." 

Mandy obeyed, and sat down shakily on a bench. Jugs of iced pumpkin juice and goblets sat on the table, so she poured herself a glass and downed it in one gulp. It gaze her brainfreeze, but she didn't care. Terry watched her, worry etched all over his face, and waited for her to tell him about what she'd just been through, but she didn't say anything. A few seconds later, Padma came running over, looking almost as flushed and breathless as Mandy. 

"Lisa said that the Slytherin Common Room was attacked!" She gasped, her voice unusually high and shrill. Mandy instinctively glanced at the Slytherin table. Half of the seats were empty. "A lot of students got hurt, but none of them know what happened. Snape is wa—"

Mandy cut her off. She reached up and grabbed Padma's arm, digging her nails into her friend's flesh.

"Where's Adrian? Is he all right?" she asked, dreading the answer.

Padma shook her head slowly. Mandy dropped her hand and put her head on her knees. When Padma spoke again, her voice sounded strange and distant.

"He's hurt, Mandy. He's in the hospital wing. I'm so sorry."

Horrible images of Adrian's body, broken and mutilated, floated through Mandy's mind. She took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to steady herself, but when she exhaled, tears came with it. She cried like that for a minute, with her face on her knees, her hair hanging down, and her arms wrapped around her legs, until Padma sat down, pulled her up, and hugged her. She sobbed into Padma's shoulder, holding her friend as tightly as she could, as though Padma was an anchor against reality.

Terry watched them, feeling helpless. He didn't like Adrian, that was for sure, and he had never believed in God, despite Mandy's mum's insistence that there was one, but he put his head in his hands and muttered a string of words that he hoped would pass for a prayer. Then he heard McGonagall's voice cutting through the chaos like fire through ice. 

"No one is to leave this room under any circumstances. If you have a problem, please speak to the prefects or our Head Boy and Head Girl. They will assist you in any way that they can. Please, if you are sitting at one of the tables, stand up and move out of the way." 

Once everyone had gotten up and was standing against the walls, the tables slid across the floor and made a neat stack by the far wall. Terry cast a glance at his friends, and saw that Mandy had stopped crying but was still clinging to Padma. Professor McGonagall continued her speech.

"I want you all to try and get some rest now. Please use the sleeping bags provided. You will most likely be able to return to your common rooms in the morning. Goodnight."

Mandy and Padma had already grabbed sleeping bags and were dragging them to a nearby corner. Terry scrambled to grab his own and followed them. Once they were all settled and staring up at the ceiling, which was so covered in clouds that not a single star was visible, Terry finally spoke to Mandy.

"Hey Mandy?" He whispered.

"Yeah?" She croaked. 

"How did your meeting with Patrick go?" It was best to keep her mind off Adrian, he figured.

"It was all right. He's a great guy. Did you know that ghosts can pass through things at will, and hold on to them if they want to?" Her voice sounded strained, like she was trying her best to keep her mind off Adrian, too. "He showed me. He put his palm against mine, and then passed his hand through it. It was strange, but nice."

"Hm," Terry responded. "That's interesting."

"Yeah," she murmured. Terry turned to look at her. She had fallen asleep ­­-- mid-word, it seemed. Her face was still streaked with tears, and her nose was red, but her expression was blank. He didn't like it, but it was better than the scary desperation and fear in her eyes before. He sat up a little bit to look over Mandy at Padma, and saw that she was asleep, too. So he settled back down and decided to take a chance.

He leaned over, careful not to breathe too loudly, and kissed Mandy softly on the forehead. 

"I'm sorry," he muttered to her sleeping form. "I hope Adrian's fine." Then he laid his head back on the ground and fell asleep.

* * *

            When Mandy woke up, her neck was so stiff she couldn't move her head. And her legs were sweaty but her nose was freezing. She twisted around and saw Terry asleep beside her, and for a moment was completely at a loss. Where was she?

            Then it all came back to her, like a cold slap to the face. Her meeting with Patrick. The empty Common Room. Running through the halls. The attack on the Slytherin Common Room. Still, everything had a dreamlike quality to it, as though she had lived through it a long, long time ago. Probably because it had all happened so quickly, and her brain hadn't had time to take it all in, but nevertheless, it was unnerving. None of it seemed real. If she hadn't been lying in a purple sleeping bag on the floor of the Great Hall, she wouldn't have believed it. 

            A Gryffindor prefect passed, and Mandy called out softly to him.

            "Excuse me, what time is it?" She asked, blinking the grey light of early morning out of her eyes. 

            The prefect turned around and glanced at his wristwatch. "Seven thirty," he said solemnly. "Breakfast isn't going to be served until eight, so you'd best try to get some more sleep."

            Mandy nodded and ran a hand through her tangled hair. "Thank you." But right now, she didn't need sleep. Matters of the bladder pressed. "Wait. I need to use the bathroom. Can I go?" 

            The prefect looked slightly embarrassed. "I'll get Lisa. She'll take you." He hurried off.

            A minute or two later, Lisa Turpin, a blonde Ravenclaw in Mandy's year, came over. "You need to use the bathroom?" When Mandy nodded, she helped her up, signaled something to Professor McGonagall across the room, and led Mandy out of the hall. 

            They walked in silence for a moment, except for the occasional yawn, until Mandy decided to test her luck and ask about Adrian.

            "Do you…" her voice failed. She tried again. "Do you know what happened to Adrian Pucey?"

            Lisa frowned for a moment, thinking. "Adrian Pucey…tall, black-haired Slytherin seventh year, right? He broke two ribs and got some nasty scratches, but he's doing well. I went down to the hospital wing an hour ago, and he was awake. Scared out of his mind, I think, but otherwise doing fine. No one's hurt too badly, actually."

            Mandy exhaled slowly. "Good," she managed to mutter. 

Then they reached the bathroom and Mandy did what she needed to do, taking a moment to splash her face with cold water and try to smooth her hair down. She looked like she'd been electrocuted. Her teeth felt grimy, and she desperately wished for a toothbrush, but with any luck she'd be back in the Common Room in an hour or two.

She and Lisa tiptoed back into the Common Room and Mandy crawled back into her sleeping bag. She couldn't sleep, so she watched the dust dance in the shafts of light that streamed down from the windows. Every once in a while, a soft breeze would come from somewhere and twirl the dancing dust in slow spirals. It was relaxing to watch, but just as she began to nod off, McGonagall's wake up call echoed through the room, shaking more dust off the rafters. 

"Get up. Breakfast will be served in ten minutes. Stand against the walls so the tables can be laid out again." 

Terry stood up almost immediately, muttering in what didn't sound like English, but Padma stayed in her sleeping bag, pulling it up over her head and groaning. Then all the sleeping bags disappeared at once, and Padma found herself shivering on the cold floor. Mandy laughed at this and Padma glared as she hoisted herself tenderly to her feet.

"My neck hurts," she whimpered. 

"Join the club," Terry muttered, as he stumbled sleepily to the wall. Mandy smiled at them both before yawning and sitting down with her back against the wall. 

The tables slid back into their places, and almost instantly, the students dragged themselves over to the benches and sat down. Jugs of orange juice, plates, goblets, and silverware appeared almost instantly, followed by huge platters of food. Mandy helped herself to a mammoth stack of toast and jam, some potatoes, and a huge bowl of steaming porridge. 

" I talked to Lisa Turpin earlier, while you two were still asleep," Mandy said thickly, through a mouthful of porridge. "She said Adrian broke two ribs and got some bad scratches, but he's doing well." She took a swig of orange juice and smiled hopefully at her friends.

"That's good," Terry said, hoping to sound indifferent. If he acted happy, Mandy would be suspicious, but if he acted disappointed, Mandy would be mad. 

Padma grinned. "That's wonderful! What else did she say?"

"She said no one was hurt badly, but everyone's pretty spooked. I am, too. I wish I knew what was behind this, or at least if the teachers know. At first I thought it might be Sirius Black, like I told you, Terry, but now it can't be. He wouldn't have hurt a whole group of students, and if he had, one of them would have seen him. So that rules him out. Now we only have one million other possibilities." She laughed like this was the funniest thing in the world. "Only one million."

Terry smiled faintly, and Padma just looked concerned. Mandy stopped laughing. 

"I wonder," she whispered.

"You wonder what?" Padma asked.

"If Patrick knows anything about this," she responded. "I'm supposed to meet him tomorrow night, at seven again. I'll ask him."

"I don't think you should go," warned Padma, and her voice sounded high and shrill again. "After what happened last night…" Then she frowned. "But then again, it seems like you're safe from everything when you're with him." She gave Mandy a suspicious glance, and Mandy just shrugged and finished her juice. 


End file.
